New Zealand's healthcare system is in dire straits as overburdened nurses battle with understaffing, overflowing emergency departments and unsafe working conditions - and it's compromising the care of patients, says one desperate healthcare worker.
From 11am until 7pm on Wednesday, New Zealand's nurses will strike in a bid for better pay and improved working conditions.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation has asked District Health Boards for a wage increase of 17 percent in recognition of their essential work. It's hoped the boost will attract more people to the critically understaffed profession, and will keep nurses - many of whom relocate overseas in search of better pay prospects - in New Zealand.
Nurses were originally offered a 1.38 percent wage increase. DHBs then gave a last-minute revised pay offer - a $4000 lump sum, a proposal nurses overwhelmingly rejected on Monday.
Speaking to The AM Show on Wednesday morning ahead of the eight-hour strike, Auckland-based clinical nurse specialist Diane McCulloch said patients are suffering due to "totally unsafe" working conditions in hospitals across the country.
"Right now, our hospitals are overrun, the EDs are overflowing, the hospital beds are over-capacity - our healthcare system is in dire straits," she declared. "It's totally unsafe - and the expectation is the healthcare workforce work safely and produce quality care.
"Nurses are so afraid everyday to enter their workplace because they are stressed, burnt out, and sick and tired of the same issues they are facing on a daily basis."
McCulloch says "there definitely have been incidents" of unwell Kiwis not receiving adequate care due to overstretched staff.
"There definitely have been incidents… of people being unwell and not being cared for in time," she said.
"We need more staff and we need better pay rates so that we are valued for our skills and qualifications. We are looking at the younger generation to enter the nursing workforce. We want to focus on nurses coming from overseas. We want to keep our nurses here in New Zealand."
After completing a three-year degree, nurses will enter the industry on a starting salary between $47,000 and $54,000. Although senior nurses who manage to move into managerial positions can go further up the pay scale, compensation for experienced nurses will often cap at around $77,000 after about 10 years in the profession.
The current salaries for nurses in New Zealand are sitting about $20,000 behind those offered in Australia, on average.
But the 1.38 percent offer is an "insult" to nurses and the high-risk work they undertook amid the height of the pandemic last year, McCulloch says.
"During the pandemic, the nurses put their lives at risk and [those] of their families, and this is the thanks we are given. It shows we are not being valued."
McCulloch said she had voted for the Labour Government in last year's election with the expectation of greater support - however, she will think twice next time.
"This is what I'm getting," she said. "We expected a better hearing because we supported [the Government], big time.
"We expected them to be there for the people."
The strike will begin at 11am on Wednesday. Hospitals are still providing urgent and emergency care, however patients with non-critical concerns are asked to contact their GP first.
